Coronary capillary blood flow in a rat model of congestive heart failure.

The aim of this study was to explore the role of abnormal coronary microvasculature morphology and hemodynamics in the development of congestive heart failure (CHF). CHF was induced in rats by aortic banding, followed by ischemia-reperfusion and later aortic debanding. Polymerized casts of coronary vasculature were imaged under a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB) software was used to calculate capillary structure index (CSI), a measure of structural alignment also called mean vector length (MVL), for 93 SEM images of coronary capillaries (CSI→1 perfect linearity; CSI→0 circular disarray). CSI was incorporated as a constant to represent tortuosity and nonlaminar flow in Poiseuille's equation to estimate the differences in capillary blood flow rate, velocity, and resistance for CHF vs. CONTROL: The morphology of CHF capillaries is significantly disordered and tortuous compared with control (CSI: 0.35 ± 0.02 for 61 images from 7 CHF rats; 0.58 ± 0.02 for 32 images from 7 control rats; P < 0.01). Estimated capillary resistance in CHF is elevated by 173% relative to control, while blood flow rate and blood velocity are 56 and 43% slower than control. Capillary resistance increased 67% due to the significantly narrower capillary diameter in CHF, while it increased an additional 105% due to tortuosity. The significant structural abnormalities of CHF coronary capillaries may drastically stagnate hemodynamics in myocardium and increase resistance to blood flow. This could play a role in the development of CHF. NEW & NOTEWORTHY In the present study, coronary capillary tortuosity was measured by applying Matrix Laboratory software to scanning electron microscope images of capillaries in a rat model of congestive heart failure. Stagnant blood flow in coronary capillaries may play a role in the development of congestive heart failure. The application of computer modeling to histological and physiological data to characterize the hemodynamics of coronary microcirculation is a new area of study.